Chapter 38: Black Flames Ascend
The weight in the air changed.
Cirth stopped laughing.
The battlefield had not gone still—screams still echoed from Veil operatives caught in Silver Waves, blades still clashed, aura still flared—but all eyes, even those blind with rage or desperation, turned toward one place:
Joshua Ikemba.
He exhaled slowly.
Dark, ember-laced smoke seeped from the edges of his cloak, curling around his limbs like serpents drawn to warmth. His soul energy surged, rippling outward in jagged bursts of black and crimson. It wasn't just power—it was pressure. Like standing too close to a collapsing star.
Marie's eyes widened. Karen stepped back instinctively. Even Sia's Silver Waves flickered near him, reacting to the sudden, unnatural heat.
"This isn't going to be pretty," Joshua murmured.
He closed his eyes—and then opened them, revealing twin voids ringed with a dim fire. He stretched out one hand, fingers spread, and the smoke ignited.
Not red.
Not orange.
Black.
Pure, devouring black fire roared into existence from his palm and spread outward, swirling around him in a maelstrom. The flames didn't simply burn—they erased. The stone beneath his feet cracked and vanished into ash, not scorched but utterly consumed. The Veil operatives still standing faltered, stepping back as their instincts screamed louder than orders.
Cirth's smirk finally slipped.
"So," the High Soulborne said, voice grating and low, "you've been hiding this."
Joshua stepped forward through the storm of flame, the black fire rolling across the ground like liquid death. "I didn't want to use this here," he said simply. "But you've pushed too far."
With a snap of his fingers, the fire obeyed.
The battlefield lit up with a fury none had seen before. Twin pillars of Black Flames surged skyward, and the veil of Silver Waves bent around them, coexisting for a brief moment in eerie balance. Sia narrowed her eyes—not in disapproval, but in respect.
"Proto Domain: Black Flames," Joshua whispered.
The temperature didn't just rise—it dropped, paradoxically. The heat of the flames wasn't natural. It wasn't thermic. It was metaphysical—a soul burn. A flame that bypassed flesh and incinerated the soul's resistance. The weaker Veil operatives caught near the core of the domain collapsed before they could scream.
Karen shielded her eyes, stunned at the transformation. "He wasn't exaggerating…" she murmured. "This power—it's not normal even for Master Soulbornes."
Cirth held his ground, but his brows twitched. A flicker of something foreign passed over his face—concern.
"You think some flashy trick can shake me?" Cirth growled, reinforcing his soul aura. "You still haven't crossed the Chasm. High Soulborne aren't intimidated by smoke and show."
Joshua looked at him. "This isn't smoke."
Then he vanished.
No—a blink-step laced with proto flames. Cirth barely deflected the first strike, only for a second wave of flaming chains to erupt behind him and lash at his back. He spun, a spike of red aura shielding his ribs just in time.
They exchanged a dozen blows in two heartbeats—soul-forged fists, black fire blades, gravity-warped strikes. The sky itself crackled above.
Joshua wasn't dominating.
But for the first time—
He wasn't losing either.